The quiz suggests I learn to play the drums. Interestingly (or not) I played the timps in the Uni orchestra for a couple of years, but moved on. It can be quite nerve-racking - if you have 452 bars rest to count, but you get it wrong and hit the buggers a bar early, EVERYBODY notices.

No instrument is given as little credit for doing as much work as the bass. Electric or acoustic, double or synth, the low end rumble is what gives music its form and power, and without it, Beethoven would sound weedy, funk would sound silly and drum 'n' bass would be just percussion. There are transport issues, particularly for double bassists, but at least they know they're integral to proceedings, and when they do let rip - whether it's slap bass or rockabilly - they're practically a one-man band.

Yeah, dig that base, maaan

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You should learn the theremin
Oh sure, conventional musical instruments are fine in their own way, but aren't they a little bit... objecty? With a theremin, your playing surface is air, you control pitch with one hand and volume with the other, and you make an eerie, unearthly noise, a bit like an electric saw, while you stand wafting your hands about like a magician. It's among the most theatrical of instruments, and doesn't fit every type of music, but when you find exactly the right setting, the results can be breathtaking.

Actually, the instrument I would most like to be able to play, because for me it produces the most evocative sound, is the piano accordion.

I was rather hoping that the piano accordian would have been the chosen quiz instrument for me, as I do own and play one.

Needless to say, Peter Sarsted's 'Where do you go to my lovely' is one of my favourite pop songs of that era.

One of my faves too!... though it's mostly Irish ballads and rebel songs that I like to chuck out. Many years ago, a pub local to where I lived who had regular live (Irish) music at the weekends asked if I would fill in temporarily for their regular accordian player for the time he was away on holiday (and get paid for doing so). I said I'm really just used to playing it on my own and not sure if I'd be any good at playing along with other guys in a band. They replied oh that wouldn't matter - it would be so noisy with all the singing and everyone would be too drunk to notice anyway ... Needless to say, I didn't take up the offer.

The quiz suggests I learn to play the drums. Interestingly (or not) I played the timps in the Uni orchestra for a couple of years, but moved on. It can be quite nerve-racking - if you have 452 bars rest to count, but you get it wrong and hit the buggers a bar early, EVERYBODY notices.

My dream, never to be realised now, I fear, was to "play" the bass drums in the Dies Irae of Verdi's Requiem.

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